Is this the biggest rock ever? Astronomers discover planet made of DIAMONDS
By Gareth Finighan
Last updated at 8:22 AM on 26th August 2011

Comments (34)[/*] Add to My Stories[/*] Share[/*][/list]It is certainly what you could call a gem of a discovery.
Astronomers believe they have found an entire planet made of diamonds.
Scientists at the University of Manchester think they have unearthed a o--

Posted Aug-26-2011 By

ian33g

@ian33g Your hard drive platters are not over 10 miles in diameter with a mass of 1.4 times our sun!!! Imagine that! The velocity at the outer periphery would be insane. (Any math people want to figure that out for us?)

Posted Aug-26-2011 By

Dick Fabulous

Comment of user 'defect' has been deleted by author (after account deletion)!

@Dick Fabulous
Well it's a bit more involved than just optical pictures. We can look at and sense stars through all sorts of methods aside from optical light. The Milky Way itself is about 100kly across, so 4000ly is right next door in terms of what we're able to see out there. Remember, we can see for billions of light years. For objects like this we can observe the light spectrum that they emit and have a very precise list of the elements its comprised of. If we know it's made mostly of carboMore..n and oxygen (through spectral analysis), then we know through observation of other examples that such a high concentration of carbon mass in a relatively small area, would result in a crystalline structure. So, a diamond like structure. Also, we can measure their masses by observing the gravitational wobble that they exert on each other. You're right, we don't know for certain what's going on in objects like this. But we have physics and its constants, so it's the best we have.Less..

Posted Aug-26-2011 By

Dick Fabulous

Diamonds aren't even that rare here on earth, it's only through the direct manipulation of the diamond supply by the Debeers company that causes them to be worth as much as they are now. If that company didn't have a monopoly on like 98% of the worlds diamond mines there would be tons of them floating around and they wouldn't be nearly as valuable because there would be whole lot more of them. When/if I get married I'm giving my wife a Ruby wedding ring or some other gemstone besides a diamondMore...Less..